A man in his 40s entered the unlocked sorority house of Alpha Kappa Phi, otherwise known as the “Agonian Society” or Ago (pictured above) on Saturday Feb. 17. The incident is currently under investigation by the Village Police. Members of the college community have constructed various rumors about the identity and actions of the perpetrator (Josie Kwan/Assoc. photo editor).
The Alpha Kappa Phi “Ago” sorority house, residing at 26 Wadsworth St., was the location of an unlawful intrusion on Sunday Feb. 17 at around 3 a.m. A man in his forties followed one of the women into the house and as many shouted for him to leave, the man continued to stay in the home, eventually leaving after the confrontation.
Village Police were called 10 to 15 minutes after the incident occurred and came to the scene. The area was checked for the suspect, but he was not found.
University Police Chief, Thomas Kilcullen, sent out a timely warning to students on Feb. 18 that stated the incident prompted an investigation.
“Apparently this male walks in, he’s in his 40s, white male,” Village Police Chief Eric Osganian said. “He’s got salt and pepper hair. He [was] wearing gray [sweat] pants ... he’s got a muscular build and facial hair. So, he walks into the house, the house was left unlocked, he was present there and they tell him to leave. He doesn’t want to leave, and eventually, he does leave. Nothing [was] stolen. There’s no burglary.”
Osganian continued to say that the only complaint they received was the man walking into the house. There were no break-ins, and this was the only incident reported, despite social media posts warning of multiple break-ins and robberies.
This is not an unusual occurrence in the area, as intoxicated people have gotten confused and walked into houses that are not theirs before, according to Osganian. This trend partly stems from consistently unlocked doors.
“Normally if someone’s intoxicated, they don’t know where they’re going,” Osganian said. “They [are] confused [about] where they live and they walk into a house or a residence that is not theirs. We get that every semester.”
Osganian did say, however, that the suspect was reportedly older than intruders in most other cases.
The Lamron sought comment from those affected by the incident. Alpha Kappa Phi president Lindsey Schulz declined to speak on the matter.
“While I respect that this is a topic that students on campus are interested in, we do not want to continue talking about the incident and will not interview regarding what has happened” Schulz said in a statement.
Students have described this happening to them both in dorms and off-campus and believe it to be a somewhat normal occurrence.
Steven Kostick ’18 explained that during the fall 2017 semester, he and his housemates living in Courtside Apartments had accidentally left their front door unlocked. One of his housemates also left his individual door unlocked.
An intoxicated person then walked into their apartment.
“Some guy who lived across the hall from us in the other apartment was extremely intoxicated, he stumbles in, I guess,” Kostick said. “No one really saw what he was doing because we were all asleep, stumbles into my friend’s room, takes off all his clothes except for his underwear and gets into bed with my roommate … my roommate wakes up and he notices there’s a person in his bed. Then he realizes that he doesn’t know this guy and he wakes the guy up and the guy goes, ‘Huh, oh, I’m so sorry,’ and takes off.”
Kostick continued to say that he’s heard of this happening to many people off-campus. He has also had this occur to friends living in the dorms who left the doors unlocked. The connection between all these occurrences is the door being left unlocked.
Osganian emphasized that if students feel they are being followed to their house or that someone is on their property, they should call 911 immediately so that police officers can help quickly and find any suspects. He also went on to say that the best thing you can do to prevent this is to lock your doors.
“I went to school here. I never locked my door because I go out, my roommate’s going to come back in later, so you don’t lock it,” Osganian said. “But you know, especially at three o’clock in the morning you want those doors locked because that will [allow] a lot of those opportunities [to] be taken away … I know it might be tough in that age group because I didn’t do it either, but we want to make sure those doors are locked. That would prevent this guy from getting in because he didn’t damage anything … he just walked in.”
Leaders of Greek life organizations, as well as the Inter-Greek Council president and vice president, also received an email emphasizing discussions to be had about maintaining the security of Greek life residences from Interim Coordinator for Fraternal and Off-Campus Life Bethany Hettinger.
“I would encourage you all to review, revisit, and/or discuss your organization’s plans for (1) house/residence safety and security, and (2) general safety or risk management practices/procedures utilized by members,” Hettinger said in the email. “Please notify your organizations and take precautions as necessary.”
Anybody with information that may help with the investigation, please contact the Village of Geneseo Police Department at (585) 245-5222.